Lamb Weston / Meijer and Wiskerke Onions are busy constructing a residual heat connection system. It will run between the adjacently-located businesses. They are laying heat exchangers and pipe systems. There will also be a monitoring system. It will measure energy consumption. Excess heat from Lamb Weston / Meijer will flow to Wiskerke Onions via this system. In this way, both these Dutch companies will save the equivalent of 300 houses' energy per year.
'We are well on track to begin using the new system by the end of June", Erik de Been, on behalf of Lamb Weston / Meijer. "That is when we need to start drying out our harvested onions", adds Chayenne Wiskerke, Director at Wiskerke Onions. "That means we can simultaneously evaluate the benefits we achieve from using this new system."
Green Deal
This residual heat project fits in well with the Province of Zeeland's Social Policy. This policy focuses on promoting energy transition (reducing the use of fossil fuels). It is to this end that the Province of Zeeland signed a Green Deal with the national government. The Province of Zeeland has, therefore, provided a subsidy of almost EUR800.000 for this project. The realisation of this project was facilitated by the Smart Delta Resources (SDR) platform. This is a collaboration of eleven energy and natural resource-intensive companies in the Southwestern Delta region. Lamb Weston / Meijer, who produces frozen potato products, is one of these eleven companies.
Heat exchange
After certain processes have been completed, Lamb Weston / Meijer has surplus energy. These processes include steam-peeling the potatoes and pre-cooking the potato products. This low-quality energy is not suited to other parts of the production process. The adjacent Wiskerke Onions can use this energy to dry out their harvested potatoes. Lamb Weston / Meijer will, therefore, capture this energy using heat exchangers. These heat water up, which flows to Wiskerke Onions. After the water cools down again, it flows back to the same heat exchangers. Here, it is again warmed up by Lamb Weston / Meijer's production process.
Savings potential
The new system will be taken into use in June. Then both partners can measure precisely how much energy they save. The expected savings potential is about 500.000m3 of natural gas. Reduced CO2 emissions of about 875 tonnes are also expected. This is roughly the same as the annual energy use of 300 households. Wiskerke Onions is contributing the lion's share of the EUR1,6 million investment. This company will also receive almost EUR800.000 from the Province of Zeeland. Lamb Weston / Meijer will receive a subsidy of about EUR13.000.
Made possible by a subsidy
Ben de Reu called this collaboration between two international agro-food companies unique. He is a deputy in the Province of Zeeland. "The subsidy received from the Green Deal has made this project economically viable", he said. "Without the subsidy, it takes too long to pay for itself. This residual heat system would not be financially viable. The residual heat connection system - and all the related energy savings - would not have been realised. The facilitation of this project development was an important aspect of this. This was done by the SDR platform."